The other side of being a transient child of the world.

Having spent the past 9 months living out a bag with the odd bit of uni course work, and the weekly Masterchef episode, my life has now come full circle symbolized with the signing of an apartment lease, and clipping the keys to my keychain that I have carried round the world at numerous homes.

The signing of an apartment lease has lead to a volcanic eruption of emotions, some of them relife as I managed to find a place to live in this city of dodgy basement suits, and flakey landlords, with an IQ and hygine standards comparable to Tony Abbotts scrotum (just to clarify,  i haven't seen Tony Abbotts' scrotum nor do I have any desire too but i'm sure its as slimy as his face).

The comfort that comes from having a flat to call my own now, is the catalyst in the lava flow of emotions spewing within my body. With this new comfort it means that my mind wanders, as I stroll through the streets of this city i've grown familiar with over the course of my undergraduate career. My time here is where my identity as a transient child of the world solidified, and I've found solace in crossing pathways (and pints) with other transient children of the world.

This has provided comfort over the years and the other transient children in this city have become a nuclear family of sorts. One of the cons of a being a transient child of the world is that, because of your lifestyle and lack of roots, and so do your friends it means that there is a potential to comeback to find other transients being transient in other parts of the world. Resulting in a bizzare realisation upon return that half the people in your phone arn't there any more.

 As the lava continues to flow through your veins, and you meander the streets, knowing the best eats and treats on every corner, seeing the same faces, in the same places, the same begger on hastings tripping balls a sense of bewilderment fills you. This is because, in all this time nothings changed, sure theres contruction thats finally finished on Broadway but, the world has just spun madly on without my presence. Resulting in an inner thought of, "how has nothing changed in this time?", and the longer your away the more shocked at how nothing has changed. Reminding you of the reasons why you left this place in the first place at a even more pronounced volume than before your departure.

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It's this feeling that reminds you of why you went on your transient way in the first place, because you wanted out of this life, and away from it all, sure its good to be back, and see all the people you missed and eat at all your favorite places and do all your favorite things.  But the problem with this is, as a transient child of the world, it doesn't matter where you go or who your with all the people ( and gastronomic delights) you love most will never been in the same place at once.

Potentially the hardest part of being a transient child of the world is that , you leave your heart in lots of places with lots of people. In addition the more you people you meet from different countries and the more places you go to, the more fragmented your heart becomes. For example, someone whose from a small country town in central British Columbia, who is born, raised and dies there, never moves and goes on holiday to another part of BC and has always had the same group of friends, will always have their heart in central BC.


Take this and compare it to someone whose got parents and family from different countries, whose moved around, and has many international friends in different places and who keep going to different places. There hearts will always be in more than one place, making it fragmented as they may have a great fondness for the town where they spent there childhood, a fondness from friends who've invited them to share cultural experiences with them, the vegetable samosas on the north west coast of Malaysia...etc the list goes on.

Ultimately, having a fragmented heart is because of something called, Ubuntu. Ubuntu, is a Southern African philosophy which means, translated into English means, " I am because of you". In other words we are who we are because of the interactions we have with wildlife, individuals, cultures, experiences that we have and share with others.

Its because of Ubuntu, that Transient Children of the World, to a point feel more, good and bad. There lives are more complex and "where are you from?", " or where's home?", results in an automated response in the back of your head along the lines of, "FUCKSAKE! not this again"....which sometimes slips out of your mouth depending on how many pints of larger you've had that night....may or may not be talking from personal experience at all......

To conclude, Transient children of the world, feel a lot, a lot of good but we also feel vulnerability, confusion and utter frustration at times with society, and life as our hearts continue to fragment like a pie fresh out of the oven. With every interaction and a new piece is carved, and thus with the moving out of every apartment and signing the lease of a new one. The transient child of the worlds emotions, start a new cycle.

planes, trains, automobiles, boats and legs: How to survive living out of a chariat of fire with your mum and dad for almost a month

Hello all yes... I know I have been positively shit at updating this thing due to the fact that I have been living out  of a bang and discovered BBC Iplayer and it is only now when i have assesment due in the coming weeks. So lets start from the beginnig our tour de New Zealand would now be possible without  that of a red car which I have named Barnibus. So heres a summary of the Baileys antics and how we did not kill each other  in the sheep filled archipeligo.

If there is one thing the guide books do not tell you it is this. If you get carsick, do NOT drive around the north island EVER. I found this out the hard way on a drive to a beach called Piha for christmas day where we had a picnic accompanied with a few moments where we thought we were going to have to have our christmas dinner in the car due to fears of, Cornish weather aka wind and rain.

Carsickness  continued through much of the tropical jungle that was north land and for much of the Coromandel Peninsula and tinkered off some where between Whangamata, the hook up Capital of New Zealand AKA Newquay for Kiwis and home of a lovely golden retriver called jackson that belonged to the owner of the lodge we were staying in who became my snuggle buddy during one sunday sunny afternoon.

Aside from windy roads the North Island was very tropical with ferns everywhere....explaining why the  national emblem is the silver fern. On our German holiday on roids with our trusty steed Barnibus  we stayed in a few lodges one of which involved foreced socialization with the other guests and the lodge owners. The other guests where this couple.... She was about sixty and he was in his mid thirties, who wern't the most engaging of people and we found ourselves laughing back in the confindes of our room. All I got to say is the girl got GAME!

Following our stint in the middle of nowhere and Rotorua.... as we called it, Pootorua due to the smell of sulfer which can only be explained as resembeling that of human excrement. featuring our hotel giving us a two bed room one of which was soaking wet. To quote my mother, if anyone has cronic wind or wants to be able to have a curry and be able to fart without fear, Rotorua is the place to do it, as you can have a fart as silent and as deadly as you want and no one will ever be able to tell.

New Zealand is a bit of a strange and backwards country, everywhere else come new years eve everybody flocks to the cities for a glorious piss up.... In New Zealand however, everyone flocks to the countryside resulting in a fireworks show being cancelled in the nations capital, Wellington due the the fact there was zero people in the city. As a result we opted for a 7 course meal, Austin Power and an early night.

If you ever travel to the South Island have your camera charged at all times as it is insainly beautiful and it well worth doing by train. Christchurch is a real mix of emotions due to earthquake damage but it has a lot of potential..... and amazing food and is pretty much England looks wise.

The furthur south you get in New Zealand the more it looks like Scotland and the more sheep you see, such was the case of Dunedin, aka New Edinburgh, and gateway to the Otago Peninsula which I would definitely say is a must do. We visited an Albatross colony..... which up until then I though Albotrosses were invented fictional characters by Monty Python..... there is a reason I am no in animal biology.

Terminating in New Whistler, aka Queenstown which involved lots of unwinding and a trip to Milford Sound other with the most irritating tour guide of life who we all wanted to kill by the end of it.